WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi toasted incoming congressional freshmen at a welcome reception Sunday and told them to "cherish the moment" of their arrival on Capitol Hill, an attendee told CNN.

Pelosi also invited members to tour her well-appointed offices, said Rep.-elect Karen Bass, D-California.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - Newly-elected GOP Congressman Allen West defended his ill-fated decision to hire a controversial radio host as his chief of staff and lashed out at her critics.

"I was not hiring a talk radio host; I was hiring a very brilliant political mind, someone that has been in South Florida politics for 20 plus years. But unfortunately the liberal left showed that I guess they are threatened and intimidated by me, and so they went into the attack dog mode, which is something that they did the entire time in our campaign," West told CNN Sunday in an interview at a downtown hotel where incoming freshmen were gathering for orientation.FULL POST

WASHINGTON (CNN) - After a shellacking at home, it was nine grueling days on the road in Asia, or as President Obama himself put it with a laugh, "Around the world - in less than 80 days."

But when Obama showed up unexpectedly in the press cabin of Air Force One Sunday afternoon after a long flight of about 14 hours home from Japan, I was one of the few reporters onboard, and he looked rested and ready to face off with Republican leaders on tax cuts on other issues.

Washington (CNN) - One by one, incoming House freshmen rolled into a downtown hotel here with luggage in tow and spouses by their sides.

The bright-eyed incoming House members arriving for orientation all said they're looking forward to pushing the ideas they promised on the campaign trail – from reducing spending to repealing health care – but several also tried to manage expectations about how fast they can achieve their goals.FULL POST

WASHINGTON (CNN) - When House Republicans created a new leadership position so that the enormous freshman class could be represented, top GOP sources said they expected South Dakota's Krisi Noem would get the slot.

But Noem, one of eight newly elected Republican women, now has competition for the elected post from Tim Scott, one of two GOP freshman African-Americans.FULL POST

(CNN) - President Barack Obama on Sunday called it "promising" that Israel was discussing a possible freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank for 90 days. He said his administration is talking with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

(CNN) - Former President George W. Bush defended his administration's handling of the war in Afghanistan on Sunday, telling CNN that some NATO allies who contributed troops to the conflict "turned out not to be willing to fight."

In an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley, Bush strongly refuted criticism that his administration took their "eye off the ball" in Afghanistan when he ordered troops to invade Iraq. He said he ordered American forces to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with the assumption that allied forces would help make up the difference in Afghanistan.

(CNN) - If the United States is to remain a preeminent economic power, it will have to swallow a strong dose of fiscal belt-tightening to ease the country's staggering deficit, two members of President Barack Obama's deficit commission said Sunday.

A list of draft recommendations presented by the commission stated a goal of reducing the debt by $4 trillion by 2020. Among the ideas proposed to accomplish this are cuts to Social Security and Medicare, as well as tax increases.